AE rendering,

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 10:17 pm

I've got a 30 second project going in AE, and it's completely done. However, whenever I try to export it always crashes roughly halfway through. No error message or anything, it just locks up and shuts down. It's a resource intensive project, but I wouldn't think that could crash it, I'm rendering to uncompressed avi with no audio. On a whim I've tried rendering it in three smaller sections at a time, and it worked the first time, ever since then it crashes as usual halfway through. I know this is frightfully little information, but I was just curious if anyone could have an Idea what the problem may be.

Many thanks

LivingFlame · Post by **LivingFlame** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:43 pm

Any chance you're using frameserved .avi files in the project (i.e. VFAPI or something similar)? I only ask because I've had them do similar things to me before.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:38 am

Nope, only lagirith and a couple of .movs.

mirkosp · Post by **mirkosp** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:24 am

You can use a "secret" in AE:
Hold down shift and go to Edit > Preferences > General. When the Preferences window shows up, let go shift. Now with the other sections (General, Previews, Display...) there will be a last voice called "Secret".
In there you can set "Purge every X frames during make movie".
By default that X is a 0, I suggest to change it to something like 15, and eventually lowering it if you still have problems.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 12:40 pm

Before I ask why the heck you have to use a hidden command to get the option (seriously, wth?) I'm sorry to say it didn't really help much, I got about 3/4s of the through instead of half though, progress I suppose, thanks :/

Any other suggestions? I've got a deadline in four hours and this is roughly half the amv. O_o

mirkosp · Post by **mirkosp** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:43 pm

Well, it's a secret option because, while it generally can help exporting, it slows down AE's rendering.

About another solution: you could export as an image sequence in a specific directory and, if it crashes, continue exporting as an image sequence from the last frame it rendered, so instead of having to re-export everything if it crashes, you'll have to export only the part left. After that, you could import the first image in virtualdubmod, and it will recognize that it's from an image sequence and it'll import the whole sequence, so you'll be able to export as a video from there. If you need to export your audio too, you could export that alone afterwards.
PS: I suggest using the composition's frame number when exporting as an image sequence, otherwise there's the risk that it will restart naming the images with 0 on every export, which wouldn't enable you to properly import as an image sequence.

Vivaldi · Post by **Vivaldi** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:24 am

Woohoo, It worked! *hugs mirkosp* I'd thought about it before, but for some reason I disregarded it as implausible. O_o